Your field research on Svejbæk sounds very
interesting. We hope you will send the result of your studies to us, when it is
finished.I just wonder – why
Svejbæk?I shall now try to answer your
questions and also to tell a little more about this site.

You ask for Real sources: It is a
pity that you don’t read Danish.You
will find nothing in English (as far as I know) about Svejbæk.But anyway take a look at our homepage under
profiles.Here are pictures and texts
about 3 profiles, who has meant a lot for Svejbæk.Edvard Egeberg was a writer.He wrote a lot of novels about the earlier history of Silkeborg and
surroundings.His brother Sigurd
Egeberg was a builder. He is the man behind a lot of houses in Svejbæk Station
(the small white houses built for the workers at Træskofabrikken in the
beginning of the 20th century).Most of
them still existing.Some made
bigger.He also owned a grocer’s shop –
and he had a lot of daughters.Another
Egeberg-brother – the youngest – Holger was a gardener and had a gardener’s
shop in Svejbæk.The Egeberg-brothers
were born in the village of Linå (early spelling Linaa).Their father and before him their
grandfather were teachers there.Elisabet (Lisbet) Jørgensen –Edvard’s grandchild – living in his house –
Edv. Egebergs Vej 3 until February this year - now 90 years old – has told and
written about her family and told about people and their houses in
Svejbæk.If you at the homepage under
“Søg på siderne” write Elisabet you shall find pages with a lot of pictures
from both the old days and nowadays from Svejbæk.

The third profile from Svejbæk is the
fisherman Laurs Christensen.He was the
first to build a house near the lake (at the peninsula Holten).People thought he was crazy to build a house
near the water because of the mosquitoes.Nowadays it is very attractive to have a house near the lake.The house still exists looking still the
same belonging to his greatgrandchildren using it as a summerhouse for all the
families.He learned fishing from his
father and was a fisherman until he died in the 1950’es.He sold his fish to the restaurants along
the river and the lakes and at the market in Silkeborg.It is said that he was the man, who invented
the famous “Svejbæk-aal” (aal = ål = eel), which tourists came from all over
the country to eat at restaurants like Svejbæk Færgegård (at the other side of
the lake), Onkel Peter’s Hus (the house of uncle Peter – now Ålekroen = the inn
of eels) and Ludvigslyst.

Some history:
What we today call Sejs Hede (Sejs Heath) is just what is left of a huge heath
between the lakes Julsø, Borresø and Brassø to the south , the two bigger
forests Linå Vesterskov to the east and Nordskoven to the west and the main
road to Århus to the north.If you came
to Sejs Heath about 1850 you would look over a vast area with heather, low birch-trees
and willows, blueberries and cranberries and reindeer-moss, perhaps a little
grass.Maybe you would meet a shepherd
with his goats, cows and sheep.A man
from Copenhagen ( a relative to the founder of the papermill in Silkeborg) –
was here in the summer 1850 and visited Sejs Heath several times.He wrote about the nature and the people, he
met, in his diary: “Adolf Ludvig Drewsens dagbog under hans ophold på
Silkeborg”.The book is onlypublished in Danish, but very interesting
from our point of view.I know for sure
from the census in February 1850 that there were exactly 9 households (43
persons – 26 adults and 17 children under 16 in Linå-Sejs (this name is
explained below) at that time.

Sejs Heath were for centuries common for
the two villages Linå (Linaa) and Hårup (Haarup). Springtime, summertime and in
the autumn you would meet the shepherds (like Drewsen did) from the
villages.In the morning after the
milking they would bring the goats and the cows to the heath and bring them
back in the evening.The sheep would
stay the night over at the heath with the shepherd or some young boys.The eastern half of the heath belonged to
Linå and the western half to Hårup.In
the late 1700’s the government decided to make an agricultural reform all over
the country, the so called “udskiftning”.The farms should no longer be placed in villages and the fields should
no longer be cultivated in common.Some
of the farms were moved to other places in the outskirts of the villages.This happened here from 1796 and on.That meant that commons like Sejs Heath no
longer belonged to all the farmers but was matriculated to certain farms.The western part – the Hårup part was
divided between, I think, about four or five farms and became later on, what we
today call Sejs.The eastern part, the
Linå part, became what we today call Svejbæk, but that name was only used from
about 1890 or maybe even later.Until
then the places were called Hårup-Sejs and Linå- Sejs.In the matriculations numbers (land register)
you can still see this.Land (the
sites) in Sejs is registered under Haarup By and in Svejbæk under Linaa
By.The borderlines between Sejs and
Svejbæk are the roads (from the lake) Enebærvej, Borgdalsvej and
Langdalsvej.Nowadays most people in Sejs
and Svejbæk believe, that Sejs Søvej near the church is the borderline between
Sejs and Svejbæk.

Answers to your questions:

Svejbæk.There is and there was never a city or even a village at the
south side of the lake. There was a place with one or two farms (depends
on which year) and a few houses called Sveibæk Huse (huse = houses).The name Svejbæk comes from a
creek(in Danish “bæk”) near
Svejbæk Huse..From the beginning
of history the lakes and the river were used for transportation.From mid 1800’s railroads were built
and the government decided about 1860 to built a railroad across Jutland
from Århus.There were discussions
about where to place it – up the hills along the main road or down along
the lakes.As you see the last was
followed.Next point to discuss
were where to place the stations.Between Silkeborg and Skanderborg there was no doubt about Laven
and Rye.Both villages were placed
in the hills, but the stations were in the low land.Around the stations came quickly houses
with shops and craftsmen, a motor mill and so on.The towns around the station were
called Laven Station and Ry Station.The villages got the names Gammel (old) Laven and Gammel Rye.But what about a station between
Silkeborg and Laven?First it
ended up not with a station, but a stop (holdeplads).Years later when the factory was built
it became a station.Why
there?Because of tourism, the
boats (Hjejlen etc., Himmelbjerget), the short way to the other bank.The place where the stop was, had no
name and there were no houses. Therefore the name from the opposite side
of the river Gudenå, Svejbæk was used.It took about 30 years before houses were built near the
station.The locals did not use
the trains (two trains a-day),If
they wanted to go to Silkeborg they used their rowing boats or they
walked.

1926-1972 there
was a stop in Sejs.A stop means that
the trains only stopped, when there were passengers to or at the stop.

The short answer
is, that the city didn’t move to the other side.There is still a Svejbæk at both sides.Nowadays the south side is called Svejbæk Færge even there is no
ferry, just a rowing boat.If you want
to cross the river, the camping site has a written obligation to bring
passengers from one bank to the other in a rowing boat. (I know it is used, but
I don’t know the ticket price).

Hotel Ludvigslyst has had a long
and chequered career.From the
reformation in 1536 when the crown took over the properties of the
catholic church until 1840 the area was owned by the University of
Copenhagen.In 1840 it was bought
by the owner of a bigger farm in Laven.Later on (about 1856) the first judge and chief constable in the
new town of Silkeborg, Mr. Drechsel, bought it. He sold it in 1876.All these years Ludvigslyst was a farm
run by tenants.The next owner
decided to make a summer restaurant and later on Ludvigslyst also became a
summer pension.Around 1900-1940
Ludvigslyst was a very popular place.Writers, painters, actors, business people spent their summer at
Ludvigslyst.Ordinary people came
walking or by train, bike or boat bringing their own food and buying their
drinks from the restaurant.A
playground for the children and for some time even a zoo.During WW2 Ludvigslyst became a
recreation place for German mariners and after the war a place for German
refugees from East Prussia.They
ruined the buildings totally, and Ludvigslyst never became the same, even
different owners tried to do their best.At last it was bought by Silkeborg kommune (kommune = municipality).Until 1970 Svejbæk (and Sejs) were part
of Linå sogn (sogn = parish), but a reform brought Linå Sogn into
Silkeborg kommune.

About 1990
Silkeborg Museum, Silkeborg kommune, the society of hotel and restaurant owners
and the union of hotel and restaurant workers decided to make a working hotel
and restaurant museum at Ludvigslyst. But – some influent politicians in the
council of Silkeborg kommune wanted and want to make Silkeborg known all over
the world as a “kurby”, like Spa in Belgium for rich people, you know wellness,
mud baths, etc.In 2008 they decided to
close down the museum, demolish the old buildings and build a modern hotel at
the site.Lots of protests and arguments
from the people of Svejbæk and Sejs didn’t make any difference.The house was emptied and the local
population got a path along the lake to calm them down.But then an incident happened that even
politicians can do nothing about – a global economical crisis, so what now?The answer is blowing in the wind.

The kind of people first living in Svejbæk.This questioncan be understood in different ways –
what is first?You are doing a
field research of the town of Svejbæk.Therefore I’ll begin at the time, when Svejbæk started to be a town
– in the latest part of the 19’s century.There were some bigger and smaller farms, among them a small farm
owned by Strunge Jensen’s great grandfather Peder Jensen, who drowned in
1891 on his way from Silkeborg in his rowing boat.At Ludvigslyst lived Christen Rasmussen
with his family. He came from a
poor family on the other side of the lakes, but he was a clever
businessman and had earned enough to buy Ludvigslyst, a farm with license
to run a restaurant and a pension, which he did with success.He was well off, but also a man who cared
about the society . He was the first member of the Linå parish council
coming from Sejs-Svejbæk.He
worked for making a school in Sejs. The school was built in 1879.And used until 1958, when a new school
was built.

In 1892 the
first dentist in Silkeborg, Mr. Warming, built the first summerhouse in
Svejbæk, Villa Longfield.The small
farmers had worked outdoors in the summertime, but most of them made clogs in
the wintertime, selling them on markets all over Jutland.The wooden clogs were as popular in Denmark
as in Nederland.

At the census in
1901 seven family fathers in Sejs-Svejbæk were both clog makers and farmers.
Five were farmers. One was a grocer. One works in the forest.Three house fathers work for the railroad
(among them two at the stop and one (and his wife) are crossing keepers).One is a fisher man and a farmer.Some of the clog makers run a kind of
factory.The census takes place the 1st
of February.It’s winter and time for
making clogs.At least 5 younger men
work making clogs at different clog makers houses.Two house fathers live from old age provision.These men and their families are the
inhabitants of Svejbæk in 1901.

From 1915
Svejbæk’s development takes on.A
factory making wood wool is built.Few
years later the factory (1919) is changed into a factory making clogs.The factory was meant to produce 150.000
pair of clogs per year.In 1929 the
production had grown to 222.500 pair.The factory even exported thousands of clogs to Nederland from
1930.The manager at Svejbæk
Træskofabrik, Mr. Fenger, got a small pair of clogs for a birthday present in
1938.When he heard that the later
queen of Nederland, Beatrix, was born at his birthday, his small birthday clogs
were decorated with her name in golden letters and send to the royal court in
Amsterdam.Fenger got a letter with
thanks,and some Dutch newspapers
brought drawings showing how the little princess got her clogs from Denmark.

In 1942 the
factory produced 283.000 pairs, but the next years was it not possible to keep
the production that high because of the war and lack of wood.After the war the factory was sold to a firm
from Copenhagen making furniture for schools and equipment for sport.This factory closed in 2006.

Træskofabrikken
was a well known place of work with a good reputation.Workers stayed there for lifetime.The same reputation had the successor.

Træskofabrikken
was the biggest working place in the parish of Linå.Workers settled down in new built houses in Svejbæk.Some other workers came on bike or walking
from Sejs or Silkeborg.One or two came
by train from Ry or Skanderborg.Craftsmen (a smith, carpenters, painters, a plumber, masons etc.)
settled down in Svejbæk, shops grew up.Today there are no shops in Svejbæk.They are all in Sejs.

You ask what role the city of Silkeborg played in the
development of Svejbæk.Did Silkeborg play any role?I don’t know.Maybe there would have been no railroad, if Silkeborg hasn’t
been founded.And then no
Træskofabrik in Svejbæk.I am not
sure. I have heard so much about
these clog makers at Sejs Heath.My grandmother’s family.I
am sure they anyway would have found out to follow the clog making into
the industrial times.The soil
here was pure sand, but supplied with the stable work of making clogs they
earned to their living.My
grandmother’s sister, Elise Bjørnholt Christensen, wrote in her memories:
“My family has lived here for many years – I do not know how many.We were poor, but all people around
here were poor, but common to all was a certain feeling of pride and
unconquerable spirit – we are a “race” tenacious of life, who wanted to do
things ourselves without help from others”.

The last is also
a comment to what you write about rich or poor people.I am not sure that people in Svejbæk all are
rich people.

We can only guess about that. Back
to the real sources: Most people in Svejbæk nowadays are from the middle
classes.Families with or without
children.Retired couples, widows and
divorced men and women.Of course
people in Svejbæk nowadays are richer than people were before.All Danes today are richer than people were
before.Most of the houses in Svejbæk
today are just like houses in so many other middle class districts.Svejbæk is today what we in Denmark call a
“soveby” (dormitory town).Husband and
wife areworking in Silkeborg, Herning
or Århus.The children are in
kindergarten or daycare (usually from the age of six months), older children
are at school in Sejs or Silkeborg and after school they are still at the school,
but now in the so called“fritidsordning” (spare time center) still together with and overlooked
by adults.Most of the retired people
are very active playing golf, participating in meetings or looking after their
ill grandchildren.

Today Silkeborg
of course plays a role.Svejbæk is part
of Silkeborg kommune.

Who is she, you
may ask?I am the chairman of
Sejs-Svejbæk Lokalhistoriske Forening.I am sure you are able to translate the name of this association.When I retired from my work as a teacher and
left my students forever, I decided to work with genealogy, but when the above
mentioned association started up in 2003 I agreed to be the chairman,mainly because it was important not to
forget the past.

1.I worked several years at Silkeborg Historical Museum

2.I am a real Sejsbo. 5. generation on the place where I live.

3.I have worked with history all my working life.

Sometimes I regret that I became a
chairman.Local history takes a lot of
time and I